What We Know About the Former Journalist Charged with Making Anti-Semitic Threats

It appears to be part of a vicious scheme to vilify a woman he dated.

Mar 3, 2017

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Nearly 100 Jewish Community Centers nationwide as well as the Anti-Defamation League have received threats during the first 61 days of 2017, unleashing a wave of anxiety across the Jewish community. On Friday morning, the situation took a bizarre turn when the FBI arrested a jilted ex-lover for making at least eight of those threats as part of an elaborate and vicious scheme to vilify a woman he had previously dated.

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The man in question is also a former journalist who was dismissed from his job for making up stories.

The suspect, 31-year-old Juan Thompson, was arrested Friday morning in St. Louis and charged with cyberstalking. Part of this alleged cyberstalking included making threats against the JCCs and Anti-Defamation League in his ex-girlfriend's name or in his own name, later claiming she was making the threats in an effort to frame him, according to an FBI criminal complaint.

"Today, we have charged Juan Thompson with allegedly stalking a former romantic interest by, among other things, making bomb threats in her name to Jewish Community Centers and to the Anti-Defamation League," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said. "Threats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race–whatever the motivation–are unacceptable, un-American, and criminal."

US Attorney Preet Bharara

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NBC News reported that officials believe Thompson is not responsible for all of the threats. Instead, he is considered a copycat.

The sustained threats against the Jewish community moved the Anti-Defamation League on February 27 to issue a security advisory to Jewish institutions. CNN reported that some of threats likely came from overseas and were part of a coordinated effort.

You see, he said he was going to ask a very simple, easy question. And it's not. It's not. Not a fair question. Sit down. I understand the rest of your question. So, here's the story, folks, number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you have ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism. The least racist person, in fact we did very well relative to other people running as a Republican -- quiet! You see he was lying that he he was going to ask a very straight simple question, you know, welcome to the world of the media. But let me just tell you something. That I hate the charge, I find it repulsive. I hate even the question because people that know me, you heard the prime minister, you heard Netanyahu yesterday, did you hear him? He said, I have known Donald Trump for a long time and then he said, I get it. You should take that instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question. Go ahead.

On Tuesday, however, Trump condemned the threats while speaking to Congress.

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"Recent threats targeting Jewish Community Centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week's shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a Nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms," Trump said.

President Trump's senior adviser, Steve Bannon, has been accused of anti-Semitism. Trump's son-in-law (and also adviser) Jared Kushner, is an Orthodox Jew, and his wife, Trump's daughter, Ivanka, converted to Judaism shortly before their marriage.

According to the FBI, Thompson was involved in a romantic relationship with the woman that ended in July 2016. One day later, he allegedly began terrorizing her, starting with an email to her employer in which someone claiming to be a TV news producer said the woman had been pulled over for drunken driving and was being sued for spreading a sexually transmitted disease. The FBI says it came from an IP address Thompson had used.

Juan Thompson

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Her employer continued to receive emails and even faxes, insisting the woman had a sexually transmitted disease and was anti-Semitic. She also received anonymous emails with nude photographs of her attached and warnings that the pictures would be released to the public. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children got a message claiming the woman watched child porn. The FBI believes Thompson is behind those threats.

At one point, the woman received text messages and emails from someone claiming to be a friend and relative of Thompson. The messages said Thompson's accounts had been hacked so he wasn't responsible for the threats against her. They also claimed he had been shot and was on life support. The FBI agent investigating the claims said this of the messages: "It appears that Thompson had not, in fact, been the victim of a shooting."

The FBI declined to comment on Thompson's past, but numerous media outlets are saying he is the same Juan Thompson who was fired from The Intercept after making up sources and fabricating quotes. One story claimed Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at a black church in Charleston, was angry because a former girlfriend had started dating a black man. That story has been retracted.

The Anti-Defamation League on Friday said its Center on Extremism had been monitoring Thompson because of the reports.

The ADL Center on Extremism has followed his past activities, including his deceptive reports for a news website about Dylann Roof.

Thompson's arrest could fuel the Trump administration's attacks against the media, partly because Thompson is a former journalist. Conservatives are already saying it validates Trump's unwillingness to comment publicly on who might be responsible for the attacks. At one point this week, the president said "the reverse might be true" when asked by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro about the threats. It's unclear what the president meant by that statement, but some speculated he was questioning the very fact that there has been a marked uptick in anti-Semitism.

Betsy Reed, the editor-in-chief of The Intercept, said in a statement that everyone at the publication was "horrified" by the charges against Thompson:

We were horrified to learn this morning that Juan Thompson, a former employee of The Intercept, has been arrested in connection with bomb threats against the ADL and multiple Jewish Community Centers in addition to cyberstalking. These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted. We have no information about the charges against Thompson other than what is included in the criminal complaint. Thompson worked for The Intercept from November 2014 to January 2016, when he was fired after we discovered that he had fabricated sources and quotes in his articles./p>

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